1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a combined purchasing and dispensing assembly specifically but not necessarily exclusively for lottery tickets wherein the assembly is capable of being operated by a purchaser without the need for any type of cashier or clerical personnel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many states have adopted and legalized the concept of lottery for the purpose of raising additional revenues for worth while purposes including education, road works, government funding, etc. Typically, the lottery system is operated in any given state by the selling of lottery tickets. Frequently, the purchaser of a lottery ticket has the ability to choose a plurality of digits represented a pre-selected or chosen lottery number. The chosen number is printed on the lottery ticket sold as proof and/or receipt that purchase was made and that if the selected lottery number is chosen by the operators of the lottery that the holder of the ticket with the chosen lottery number thereon will in fact be paid the designated prize monies.
Experience dictates that there is a large demand for such lottery tickets at most of the vendor locations where such tickets are sold. The actual dispensing or selling of the tickets however, frequently takes extended periods of time by cashiers or like clerical personnel thereby adding expense to the vendors cost of operation.
Also, there is recognized move towards the selling, disbursing, etc. of a variety of items including but not limited to fast food items from facilities which specifically cater to motorists without the purchaser leaving their vehicle. Such "drive-up" facilities, as set forth above, are most commonly associated with fast food restaurants. It has previously been thought that such a drive-up approach was not readily adaptable to the selling of lottery tickets. However, it is clearly understandable that the purchasing and dispensing of lottery tickets to purchasers in vehicles would facilitate the distribution of such lottery tickets in a quick and efficient manner especially is clerical personnel or cashiers were not required for such dispensing. This would have advantageous features from the purpose of personal safety such that the occupants of a vehicle could clearly avoid vandalism or assault.
The U.S. Pat. No. to Shapiro 4,720,785 discloses a computer assisted ticketing device such as for garages which provides the necessary functions to allow check-in and check-out the computing of prices and the printing of tickets which are dispensed to the public. The input to this system is produced by the reading of ticket information from specifically designed tickets imprinted with bar code data. Additional information is entered into the system by reading bar code data representing, for example, the make of the car, identification of the license tag, etc. Absent from the Shapiro structure is the ability to purchase and/or pre-select a ticket having a "lottery number" thereon which may be pre-selected by the purchaser at the time of purchase.